Becker's Hospital Review

58 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Joint Commission to conduct review of requirements By Erica Carbajal T he Joint Commission plans to review all of its ac- creditation requirements that go "above-and-be- yond" CMS requirements. In a Sept. 13 statement, the organization said it will "address the necessity" of its requirements, similar to how CMS has been reviewing requirements that were waived during the nation's COVID-19 public health emergency. The accrediting body said it will specifically review each of its unique requirements to answer the following questions: • Does the requirement still address an important quality and safety issue? • Is the requirement redundant? • Are the time and resources needed to comply with the requirement commensurate with the estimated benefit to patient care and health outcomes? n PAs push for permanent expansion of practice authority By Mackenzie Bean M any states temporarily waived or relaxed scope of practice rules for physician assis- tants during the pandemic to expand access to care. Now, PAs are pushing for those changes to be- come permanent, Medscape reported Sept. 9. Some states increased the amount of PAs that one physician could supervise, for example, while others allowed PAs to practice remotely without a physician present. A timeline for when states may revoke these flexibilities is still unclear. Many PAs say the increased autonomy has increased their job satisfaction and are calling for states to consider maintaining current scope of practice policies. Ninety- one percent of PAs said the expansion of their practice should be permanent, a recent Medscape survey found. In contrast, many physicians and medical groups — including the American Medical Association — have opposed permanent scope of practice expansions for PAs, saying the move was necessary to respond to the COVID-19 crisis but could jeopardize patient safety if kept permanently. n 15 cities ranked by wait times for a new patient appointment By Molly Gamble P ortland, Ore., residents can expect to wait 40 days, on average, to be seen as a new patient in physician offices. New Yorkers can plan to wait nearly half as long. e findings come from AMN/Merritt Hawkins' 2022 Survey of Phy- sician Appointment Wait Times and Medicare and Medicaid Accep- tance Rates. Researchers for AMN/Merritt Hawkins contacted physician offices in 15 major metropolitan areas from March through mid-May to sched- ule a new patient appointment. Researchers focused on five medical specialties: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics-gynecology, orthope- dic surgery and family medicine. First appointment times were ob- tained from a total of 1,034 distinct physician offices. Eight key takeaways: 1. e average wait time for a physician appointment for the 15 large metro markets surveyed in 2022 is 26 days, an 8 percent increase from the 24.1 day average in 2017 and a 24 percent in- crease from the 20.9 day average in 2004. 2. Portland has the highest average new patient physician appoint- ment wait time — 45.6 days — across all five specialties of the metro markets surveyed. 3. New York has the lowest average new patient physician appoint- ment wait time — 17.4 days — across all five specialties of the metro markets surveyed. 4. e average wait time to see an obstetrician-gynecologist is 31.4 days, up 19 percent from 26.4 days in 2017. 5. e average wait time to see a dermatologist is 34.5 days, up 7 percent from 32.3 days in 2017. 6. e average wait time to see a cardiologist is 26.6 days, up 26 percent from 21.1 days in 2017. 7. e average wait to see an orthopedic surgeon is 16.9 days, up 48 percent from 11.4 days in 2017. 8. e average wait time to see a family medicine physician is 20.6 days, down 30 percent from 29.3 days in 2017. Metro areas ranked by the average wait time for an appointment across 5 specialties Portland: 45.6 days Boston: 33.8 days Minneapolis: 30.8 days San Diego: 30.2 days Miami: 29.2 days Philadelphia: 28.2 Seattle: 28.2 Denver: 26.8 days Los Angeles: 22.2 days Dallas: 21 days Atlanta: 20.2 days Houston: 20.2 Detroit: 18.8 Washington, D.C.: 18 days New York: 17.4 days n

• Cover